Brendan Rodgers deserves manager of the season award for crafting counter-attacking, flexible and entertaining Liverpool

In the opening months of Brendan Rodgers’ reign as Liverpool manager some supporters worried that the Northern Irishman offered plenty of style but little substance.

His sides were often found dominating possession but dropping points, leading to self-mockery among fans along the lines of ‘at least we won the possession stats’.

A little over a year and a half later and that can no longer be labelled towards Rodgers and Liverpool.

The Reds’ boss has created a side that shows superb flexibility and tactically variance.

At Southampton on Saturday the manger introduced a midfield diamond in order to allow Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge to operate alongside each other in attack, but also give Steven Gerrard the protection of two dynamic ball carriers in Jordan Henderson and Joe Allen.

Philippe Coutinho was then allowed the freedom of the ‘number 10′ role behind the front two, with Raheem Sterling unfortunate to miss out.

But Sterling’s omission shows that this is about the end product; team over individuals. The best thing for the team was that Liverpool changed shape accordingly. Sterling still had a large role to play; scoring within a minute of replacing Coutinho early in the second half.

That Rodgers was willing to ‘drop’ the in-form Sterling shows that he isn’t afraid of tough decisions – just as he wasn’t with allowing Pepe Reina to leave in the summer.

Rodgers has gone from a manager who had ‘no plan B’ to a manager who is difficult for the opposition to predict. We’ve seen variations of 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2, and other subtle formation changes throughout the season.

Similarly, we’ve seen Suarez and Sturridge alternate not only from game-to-game who occupies the central role and who is wide, but also within games – further confusing opposition defences.

The transformation of Steven Gerrard to a deep lying playmaker is now eight Premier League games in.

Not only has the team shown such tactical flexibility, but Rodgers too has improved players to get the most from them this season; Jon Flanagan is the primary case in point; but so too is Suarez – now the league’s top goalscorer and assist creator.

Gerrard’s new role is getting the best from him now, Skrtel has improved, Sturridge continues to improve and Sterling is showing huge progress too.

Rodgers deserves all the credit and hopefully his side continues their form so that he can earn the manager of the season accolade he’s earned.